Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c38.11

c38.11

The other phase of architectural development in the Southern region of Bengal has been defined above as an indigenous form of the building art peculiarly expressive of the inhabitants of these parts. Constructed sometimes of laterite, but generally of brick, and so actually moulded out of the very composition of the earth from which these agriculturists wrested their living, it speaks of the soil itself, and few things can be more fundamentally influential than the nature of one's native soil Obviously originating from a somewhat primitive and cabin-like structure it gradually evolved into a system derived from the wooden houses and bamboo thatched huts of the ancestral forest dwellers. This is shown specifically in the sloping roof, curved eave, and other similar features, which could only be the result of long years of building in timber and bamboo Such expedients are the logical outcome of a mind ingenuous yet practical, a consciousness which concerned itself mainly in dealing with the elements or powers of nature as these affected the course of daily life by the profound reality of their existence.